Enemy of the State? The Security Rationale for NGO Legislation in Russia

• In Event: Evolving Patterns of State-Society Relations Across Post-Communist Eurasia

Abstract

Russia and other Eurasian countries have raised legal regulatory barriers for the formation and operation of non-governmental groups as part of their distinct understanding of appropriate state-society relations after the color revolutions.  This paper will investigate the role played by security officials in this process and will analyze how officials in Russia seek to promote security by regulating realms understood in the West to be domains of civic participation.  Specifically, this paper will analyze how Russian security officials understand, justify, and promote greater legal regulations of NGOs domestically and in other Eurasian countries.  Particular attention will be placed on the rhetoric and activities of security officials as part of regional security groups such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Author

• Leah E. Gilbert, Lewis and Clark College